Brunch at The Kenwood

When exactly did brunch become the organizing principle of our weekends? And are we OK with this? Carrie Bradshaw was. For better or worse, Sex and the City helped popularize the brunch-as-lifestyle movement in the final, innocent days of the last millennium (if you’ve ever wondered what Marie Antoinette’s Versailles would look like today, picture Sarah Jessica Parker, mimosa in hand, lazing about a Manhattan bistro). And now here we are, Instagramming duck egg omelets, parsing the merits of craft bloody marys, attending “vinyl brunches” staffed by live DJs, and generally fetishizing the hell out of the whole experience. Is it any wonder Portlandia spent an entire episode gently mocking the midday meal? But if you can get past the gimmicks, the over-inflated prices, and the leisure-class trappings, brunch is sort of the best, at its core an easy excuse to ditch adult obligations for a few hours and bond with friends over sugar, salt, and booze. So, yes, we’re fans of The Brunch Life™—especially given that the Twin Cities does it so well. *

Go sweet: Pancakes! $5 gets the littles some light and lovely silver dollar pancakes with a glass of milk and real maple syrup. Grownups will want the bigger buttermilk pancakes, a side of that irresistible Red Table ham, and a beer—because pancakes go well with beer (it’s true!).

Food and Dining editor Stephanie March writes and edits Mpls.St.Paul Magazine’s Eat + Drink section. She can also be heard Saturdays on her myTalk107.1 radio show, Weekly Dish, where she talks about the Twin Cities food scene.

Dara Moskowitz Grumdahl was born in New York City little aware of her destiny—to eat out a lot in Minnesota. Dara is the other half of our star food and dining team, working side by side with Stephanie March.

Chris has been with our organization for five years. Before joining the Mpls.St.Paul team, Chris was deputy editor for DeltaSky, published by MSP Communications. As editor-at-large, Chris is a contributing writer and frequent editor for stories.